Safe-to-Fail Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for Phoenix Roadways under Extreme Precipitation

Built infrastructure continues to become more vulnerable to failure due to shifting temperature and precipitation extremes associated with global climate change. Current infrastructure design practices require risk analysis to predict a range of weather events in which built systems endure any possible failure—or “fail-safe” design. However, if the system receives a shock that is not foreseen with the historical data, it may lead to a shutdown of the entire system and thus cause unmanageable and cascading failures. Instead, “safe-to-fail” design takes into account uncertain future threats by privileging infrastructure solutions that do not compromise the entire urban system upon failure. In this study, the authors link climate and urban drainage models to predict future roadway vulnerability using the EPA storm water management model (SWMM) and propose a framework for “safe-to-fail” infrastructure adaptation strategy using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). The authors demonstrate the practicality of this framework for future flooding events in Phoenix, Arizona. Taken together, this new infrastructure design framework is important for managing future extreme weather events by taking into account “safe-to-fail” decision factors neglected in traditional “fail-safe” design.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784481202.033
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780784481202
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Civil Engineers

  1801 Alexander Bell Drive
  Reston, VA  United States  20191-4400
• Authors:
  • Kim, Yeowon
  • Eisenberg, Daniel
  • Bondank, Emily
  • Chester, Mikhail
  • Mascaro, Giuseppe
  • Underwood, Shane
• Conference:
  • International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure 2017
  • Location: New York New York, United States
  • Date: 2017-10-26 to 2017-10-28
• Publication Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 348-353
• Monograph Title: International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure 2017: Policy, Finance, and Education

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Climate change; Drainage; Failure; Floods; Highway design; Multiple criteria decision making; Precipitation (Meteorology); Risk assessment; Runoff; Uncertainty; Urban areas
• Geographic Terms: Phoenix (Arizona)
• Subject Areas: Design; Environment; Highways; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01687921
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780784481202
• Files: TRIS, ASCE
• Created Date: Dec 11 2018 9:21AM